YOUNG, GIFTED - AND GREEN: ROCHE AND DEIGNAN GO HEAD TO HEAD



Irish riders Philip Deignan and Nicolas Roche will be part of a new wave of young riders making pro debuts in 2005. Both secured contracts after a good season; 21 year old Deignan landed a deal with Ag2R Prevoyance after a string of good results, including a win in the Ronde d’Isard World Cup stage race and several other high placings in the series. He showed his climbing prowess with two third places on stages of the Baby Giro and strong performances against the professionals in both the Tour de Langkawi and the Tour of Britain.

Deignan’s VC La Pomme team-mate Nicolas Roche is also moving up into the paid ranks, the 20 year old son of the 1987 Tour de France winner securing a contract with Cofidis after a strong tenth place in the GP Isbergues while on trial with them. Roche also placed highly in several World Cup events and was the bronze medallist in the Irish road race championships in June, one place ahead of Deignan.

Procycling sat down with the young Irish riders in a quiet hotel on the shores of Lake Garda, one day after Deignan and Roche took part in their final event of the year, the world under 23 road race championships in Verona. They were slightly disappointed with 17th and 22nd respectively in the race and, feeling the effects of a long season, were looking forward to putting all matters cycling aside for a week or two. But not before they faced one last daunting, draining endurance test, the Head to Head grilling…


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Procycling: It has been a long, tiring year for you but you have both come out of it with pro contracts. Can you give me a brief run-down on how the season went for you?

Nicolas Roche: Well, my first strong result was in March and my most recent strong result was last week, so I have been racing consistently for the full season. I have two wins from the year – I won the first stage, a time trial of the Criterium Varois in the South of France, and then the team time trial with Philip, the French DN1 cup. I was second on the Tour du Loire et Cher, which is a UCI race, and then I was ninth and eleventh in 1.5 races in France and Switzerland. I also had a couple of good World Cup races – I did three of them and two times I was eighth and once eleventh.

Procycling: What were those World Cup races?

NR: Well, I was eighth in Paris-Mantes. I was away for 160 kilometres….there was twenty of us, then seven of us, then I was clear on my own but was caught in the last kilometre. Philip did a good ride too that day, he was a big sprinter (laughs), he won the bunch sprint for a change! So he is not only a climber...

The other one was the Ronde de L’Isard… I was eighth overall and third on a stage. My eleventh was in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege; I was really disappointed with it because I think Philip or myself should have won that race. The two of us were a step above the other riders. We were very unlucky because we were sent the wrong way on La Redoute. There were five of us at the time, including Philip and myself. The bunch caught us then when we came back around, and then everyone sat up then and three guys went away. Nobody would chase them and they went on to the finish, because we just sat there for about 25 minutes...






- Read the full interview in the current issue of Procycling magazine.